Beware of Nice. Truth is Better
Imagine my surprise to discover that the Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, is familiar with Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/something_you_dont_see_every_d.php)
But I should not be surprised – it is a book with universal scope and has drawn its readers from many different cultures and social positions down through the years.
Marcus Aurelius (121-180AD) speaks to this moment in the global economic situation, when he says that ‘the art of living is more like wrestling than dancing’. And indeed, he himself was more of a wrestler than a dancer. More important than bliss was attentiveness, kindness, service.
His thought is about simplicity – ‘Philosophy is a modest profession, all simplicity and plain dealing. Never try to seduce me into solemn pretentiousness.’ (IX, 29)
He is a useful purgative for our bloated times. ‘You can discard most of the junk that clutters your mind and clear space for yourself’ (IX, 32).
As for collapsing fortunes and careers in free-fall, ‘all that you see will soon have vanished, and those who see it vanish will vanish themselves.’ (IX, 33)
To cope with the generalised panic, ‘Say to your mind, are you one of the herd?’ (IX, 39).
This is no nihilistic message, just a matter of priorities, a reckoning that clears out the junk. What is left? Our one true purpose as human beings:
‘Humans were made to help others – or help them to do something – we are doing what we were designed for. We perform our function.’ (IX, 42)
As for boom-and-bust, these are part of the great wheel of fortune, and ‘everything flows.’ ‘Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? What’s closer to nature’s heart? Can any vital process take place without something being changed?’ (VII, 18).
‘Where have they gone, the brilliant, the insightful ones, the proud?’ (Gandhi, JFK, Martin Luther King, Pablo Neruda, James Joyce, Marie Curie…) ‘Short-lived creatures, long dead. Some of them not remembered at all, some become legends, some lost even to legend’ (VIII, 25).
‘Augustus’ court: his wife, his daughter, his grandsons, his step-sons, his sister, Agrippa, the relatives, servants, friends, Areius, Maecenas, the doctors, the sacrificial priests… the whole court, dead.’ (VIII, 31) He regularly runs these tableaux, as if to put his own surroundings in perspective. His point is not fatalism, but focus: ‘You have to assemble your life yourself, action by action’ (VIII, 32).
‘Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it – turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself – so too a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal’ (VIII, 35).
Negative equity on your house? Lost your job? ‘Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole. Don’t try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand, and ask: “Why is this so unbearable? Why can’t I endure it?” You’ll be embarrassed to answer’ (VIII, 36).
Panic scales everything up, it doesn’t allow for fractions. But Marcus brings us back to basics: ‘Joy for humans lies in human actions – kindness to others, rise above the promptings of the senses, distinguish appearance from reality, and study nature’ (VIII, 26).
As a curative for galloping consumerism, greed and envy: ‘Treat what you don’t have as non-existent. Look at what you have, the things you value most, and think of how much you would crave them if you didn’t have them.’ (That plasma screen, that car.) ‘But be careful. Don’t feel such satisfaction that you start to over-value them – and would be upset to lose them’ (VII, 27).
For the philosopher, indifference, properly understood, is a useful weapon. ‘Wash yourself clean…with simplicity, humility, and indifference to everything but right and wrong.’ (VII, 31)
Imagine you are in the position of knowing that your business will fold soon. Such a person is like the driver of a fast car, cocooned in the latest technology, driving through a snowy night, with very little petrol in the tank. You need to prepare for the very big shock to the system that lies ahead by taking small steps to reduce your artificial separation from the environment. Open the window. Switch off the music. Think about what you will need for survival in the snow outside.
Beware of nice. Nice is nice, but truth is better.
We have been in a dream, the Celtic Tiger dream. Now we need to get back to the truth, and quickly. It has been a time of noise and distractedness, when big was small, and small was big, when everything was for sale. It has been a headlong, mad rush. It had to be, for, as Emerson said, ‘In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.’
